The Psychology of Collective Action

Author(s):  
Lauren E. Duncan

Personality and social psychology research on motivation for collective action is reviewed and integrated into a model presented in Figure 31.1. The personality work effectively identifies correlates of collective action without necessarily providing explanations of motivation. The social psychological work provides convincing motives for collective action but downplays individual difference variables. The integration of these two traditions addresses these gaps and allows for a deeper, more complex understanding of the phenomenological experience of the development of group consciousness and links to collective action. Promising areas for potential future research are discussed.

Author(s):  
Lauren E. Duncan

Personality and social psychology research on motivation for collective action is reviewed and integrated into a model. Integrating individual difference variables into the study of motivation for collective action allows a deeper, more complex understanding of this motivation and can explain why some group members develop group consciousness and become politically active whereas others do not. The personality work effectively identifies correlates of collective action without necessarily providing explanations of motivation. The social psychological work provides convincing motives for collective action but downplays individual difference variables. The integration of these two traditions addresses these gaps and allows for a deeper, more complex understanding of the phenomenological experience of the development of group consciousness and links to collective action. Promising areas for potential future research are discussed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco La Barbera

The effect of communicating social psychology research findings on ingroup bias in a classroom setting has been investigated. Two hundred and twenty one high school students either read or did not read a brief report about three classical social psychological studies, then completed evaluation scales for the ingroup and the outgroup. Participants’ motivation was manipulated, and the messages were different as regards the congruency between the content and participants’ actual intergroup experience. Results showed that communication exerted a significant effect in reducing ingroup bias for participants in the high motivation/high congruency condition, that is, the communication effect was moderated by the individual’s level of motivation and the content of the arguments proposed in the report. Practical implications of results for education work and stereotype change, limitations of the study, as well as possible directions for future research are discussed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford Stevenson ◽  
Nick Hopkins ◽  
Russell Luyt ◽  
John Dixon

In this article we review the argument outlined in the opening article in this special thematic section: that the current social psychology of citizenship can be understood as the development of longstanding conceptualisations of the concept within the discipline. These conceptualisations have contributed to the current social psychological study of the constructive, active and collective (but often exclusive) understandings of citizenship in people’s everyday lives, as evidenced by contributions to this thematic section. We consider how this emerging body of work might fit with current citizenship studies and in particular how it may contribute to the current trend towards conceiving citizenship as an active practice embedded in everyday social life. Specifically, we highlight three areas of future research that we think are particularly promising: citizenship and recognition; displays and enactments of citizenship in public space; citizenship and lived coexistence. Although this is far from an exhaustive list of possibilities, we propose that research in these areas could enable the way for social psychology to articulate a distinct, recognisable and valuable contribution to citizenship studies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martijn van Zomeren ◽  
Winnifred R. Louis

In this introduction to the special issue of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations on “Culture and Collective Action” we emphasize the importance of the special issue topic for the development of the field. Specifically, we highlight the globalization of collective action and the internationalization of the social-psychological study of collective action, both of which point to culture as a missing link for this field. We thus propose that the next step is to move toward a proper cultural psychology of collective action—a social psychology in which culture is an integral part. This special issue provides a first step toward such a broad and integrative psychological understanding of collective action, but comes with promises as well as problems. We discuss both the exciting synergies and some lessons to learn for the future, and conclude that a focus on culture will facilitate the development of the rich and fascinating field of the social psychology of collective action.


Author(s):  
Katharine H. Greenaway ◽  
Cindy Gallois ◽  
S. Alexander Haslam

Communication and social psychology have much in common. Both fields seek to answer basic questions about human behavior: how do we persuade and influence others? How do we develop and maintain social connections? When and why do relationships break down? But despite overlap in the questions they ask, social psychology and communication have remained remarkably separate disciplines, with vastly different research philosophies, methods, and audiences. It is important to interrogate the theoretical threads connecting communication and social psychology in the arena of intergroup communication, in order to bring the lenses of both fields to this arena. In particular, the construct of identity is woven through communication and social psychology research, and connects both fields to intergroup relations and communication. Paradoxically, issues of identity—how it is created, shaped, and signaled by the social contexts we inhabit—are frequently overlooked in both fields; in the future, there should and will be much more emphasis on the impact of identity in intergroup communication.


Author(s):  
Susan C. Baker ◽  
Bernadette M. Watson ◽  
Cindy Gallois

Language is a social behavior and a key aspect of social interaction. Language is ubiquitous and usually occurs with other human behaviors across diverse contexts. Thus, it is difficult to study it in isolation. This difficulty may be why most, albeit not all, social psychologists tend to neglect language, in spite of the prominence of language in early 20th century social psychology and the presence of numerous handbooks and reviews of this area. Language use has implications for many social psychological processes, and, given its role in daily social life, it is important to understand its social underpinnings. The field of language and social psychology highlights the relationship between language and communication and foregrounds the differences between the social-psychological and communication approaches. One central issue is bilingualism and the relationships among language, identity, and culture. Another is methodology, where social psychologists have tended to choose experimental and survey strategies to look at language (not always to the best advantage). This century has seen the development of new technologies that allow us to look at language on a large scale and in rich detail and that have the potential to transform this research. In part as a consequence, in the early 21st century there are many new topics emerging in language and social psychology that help to set a new agenda for future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 172-178
Author(s):  
Jake Harwood ◽  
Karen Tracy

This Epilogue discusses the papers in the Special Issue ( JLSP 40th Anniversary) in terms of the broader field of language and social psychology. It reflects on the key terms (“language” and “social psychology”) in terms of how they intersect and the relative emphasis on each in work published in JLSP. We also present an argument for increasing the consideration of context in language and social psychology research, and we distinguish between a desire to generalize versus universalize our knowledge about language and social psychological processes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (22) ◽  

Along with the widespread rise in immigration and the increase in the number of immigrants, academic interest in migration research has also grown. Although there are many studies conducted in various fields, the number of studies who approached migration from an intersectional perspective is rather small. The number of studies approaching migration and the social psychological processes of migrants from the perspective of intersectionality is even smaller in Turkey. Considering the large number of immigrants in Turkey, it is obviously essential to understand and study intersectionality in these particular contexts. Therefore, this article is written to explicate the concept of intersectionality and review migration studies adopting an intersectional approach. The basis of the concept of intersectionality, historical background that led to the birth of it, its subtypes as well as the importance of race, class and gender in intersectionality are among the issues discussed in this article. Moreover, with respect to migration studies from the perspective of intersectionality, studies conducted in various culturally diverse countries are outlined. The last but not the least, the prominence of conducting research on intersectionality in the Turkish context is also emphasized. In this review, we aim to present the literature to students and academics in the field as well as to provide direction for future research. Keywords: Migration, intersectionality, intersectional discrimination


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 676-676
Author(s):  
Sheila J. Wallace

The author, a sociologist, describes his monograph as an "empirical study of the interaction of social, psychological and biological factors leading to behavior disorder in epileptic children." The first part of the book consists of a brief introduction to the problems it was felt relevant to investigate and to the sources of patients and of information received about them. A second section is devoted to an examination of the literature. This is comprehensive and well-argued.


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